Sir,WHAT
none of your correspondents mentions about Churchill's
undoubted painting skills is that he did not choose the
pseudonym Charles Maurin (not Morin) to exhibit his
paintings under, as David Wyllie notes (Jan. 25), by
happenstance. The genuine Charles Maurin, born at Puy in
1856, was a minor master of the French Post-Impressionist
school who had died in the Alpes-Maritimes in 1914. Their
painting styles were very similar. Winston was guilty of
what in modern times would be called "passing off."He got away with this harmless deceit until he visited the
White House in the winter of 1941/42. The head of the
Section of Fine Arts in Washington sent him a gently mocking
invitation ('we serve coffee!') addressed to 'Charles
Maurin, c/o The President'.'We have always had a very high regard in the Section,' this
read, 'for an English painter named Charles Marin
[sic ] who we understand is otherwise
known as Winston Churchill.'Intrigued by this letter, President Roosevelt ordered an
investigation and found out what Winston had got up to in
his poverty-stricken wilderness years. He was unable to
resist sending the dossier over to London. 'Dear Winston,'
he ribbed him on Feb. 11, 1942, 'these people who go around
under assumed names render themselves open to all kinds of
indignity and suspicion.' He added this piece of mischief:
'The British Embassy was asked for verification and I
suppose the matter has been to Scotland Yard and back
again.'Prices for a genuine Churchill of course now far outclass
those for a Charles Maurin. Churchill's 1924 French
landscape, 'Mimizan,' sold for 48,000 in 1977; a Maurin
attracted only 800 in 1972.Alas, none of this is contained in Sir Martin Gilbert's
volumes on the great man.